Jerusalem Post Letters to the Editor: US Jews and Iran

Iran is not a new issue for Jews anywhere in the world. And the danger that they pose to us in Israel is absolutely existential.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
US Jews and Iran
While I have long read and enjoyed Rafael Medoff’s writings on matters related to the Shoah, having just read his latest (“Understanding the poll of US Jews on the Iran deal,” July 27) on the reasons for the American Jewish reaction to the new Iran deal, I believe some of the views presented are dated and off the mark by a wide margin.
Iran is not a new issue for Jews anywhere in the world. And the danger that they pose to us in Israel is absolutely existential.
There is really no need to become acquainted with the fine points of the “deal” in order to be able to reach an understanding of what the government of Israel has been saying out loud to the world for years.
Quoting Professor Arthur Hertzberg, Medoff raises the idea that American Jews today still adhere to their grandparents beliefs that they must “avoid expulsions and pogroms.”
Seriously, is Medoff kidding? Does that really explain where American Jews are at in 21st century America? Medoff doesn’t address the underlying problem that is facing the vast majority of Jews of America and that filters now through everything they think about their Jewish brethren in Israel: Caught up in their liberalism and assimilation, and suffering from ever weaker Jewish identities, they increasingly do not wish to even identify with issues like Iran that today threaten Israel. How could it be that in New York City, with the vast number of Jews in its metro area, there were at best only 10,000 attendees at the major Iran protest rally held in Times Square last week? Does anyone remember the days of the Soviet Jewry movement when there would regularly be 200,000 turning out in support? Sadly, large numbers of Jews in America today are embarrassed, angered or indifferent with regard to major issues facing us in Israel.
HOWIE MISCHEL Modiin
Not tough enough
This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following statement: “We are working to support the settlement enterprise and are doing so in compliance with the law” (“We oppose demolition of Beit El homes, Netanyahu says,” July 29). He said it only to calm angry Likud MKs threatening to bring down the government, which of course they will not do.
Had Netanyahu been serious about supporting the settlements, there have been many options open to him to do so. Instead, he may now address the EU with his ‘peace partner’ Mahmoud Abbas to whom he is still determined to give a state even though Abbas continues to incite towards our total destruction and denies our historical attachment to the Land. Will the people perhaps now realize that we do not need Netanyahu? What we do need is a faith-based religious Zionist leader with no problem in protecting our full rights in the Jewish Land.
YENTEL JACOBS Netanya
Iranian respect
Iran is already reaping the rewards of being a threshold nuclear weapons state because the world is now treating it with much more “respect” than it deserves (by respect I mean the respect in which we regard the mafia). This agreement with Iran is an inducement for its regime, and all the other rogue nations of the world like Pakistan and North Korea, to cheat and go all the way to nuclear weapons capability.
It’s interesting that while Israel is believed to also have nuclear weapons capability, it isn’t treated with the same respect. The reason is simple – to gain “respect” in this screwedup world, a state has to have nuclear weapons capability and flaunt it too.
To gain the respect that Iran is now getting, a nation has to threaten the world with nuclear war.
BARRY LEONARD WERNER Netanya